Nick Dentamaro | Jackson Citizen PatriotWestern Superintendent Michael Smajda talks about proposed budget cuts that area school districts could be facing during a forum held Monday night at Western High School.

Proposed state cuts in K-12 education would have a “catastrophic” effect on public schools, Western Superintendent Michael Smajda said Monday.

Smajda was speaking at the first of three forums being held by Jackson County school superintendents and school employee union leaders.

“These are catastrophic changes in our finances that will impact children, ultimately,” said Smajda, speaking to about 120 educators, parents, legislators and other community members at the Western High School Community Arts Center.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed a $300-per-student cut and not restoring a $170-per-student reduction from this school year. Plus, school districts are facing additional costs from mandatory payments for retirement costs that Smajda said will amount to $230 per student, bringing the total impact to the equivalent of a $700-per-student cut.

Future forums

The next two school funding forums will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at the Michigan Center High School Auditorium, 400 S. State St., and 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, at the Jackson High School Library, 522 Wildwood Ave.

State Reps. Earl Poleski, R-Spring Arbor, and Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, who both attended Monday’s forum, said afterward school districts can address cuts by reducing expenses for salaries and fringe benefits.

“If we react as we always have, it could be catastrophic,” Poleski said. “If the people who are here tonight — the superintendents and school board members, who are very bright people — look at every aspect of their business, I think they might find ways to address these (cuts).”

During the forum, Smajda and Jon Harmon, a regional director for the Michigan Education Association that represents most of the state’s teachers, both said pay cuts and employee insurance concessions will not be enough to make up for the proposed changes in funding and retirement costs.

“We’re not simply talking about asking all employees to take a 2 percent cut in pay,” Smajda said. “That’s not going to hit it.”

Many Jackson County districts are facing budget deficits of $1 million or more in the 2011-12 school year based on Snyder’s proposal. A typical Jackson County school district with about 1,500 students would have to eliminate busing and sports or eliminate the positions of 12 teachers or administrators to solve its budget shortfall, Smajda said.

Harmon said requiring employees to pay 20 percent of their insurance costs would save about $200,000 in one district whose employees he represents, compared to the $1.6 million deficit that district faces. He declined to name the district.

But Shirkey — who said pay for public educators has been “untouched” relative to private sector wages in recent years — said the numbers don’t add up.

“Do the math,” he said. “I can think of a school district — I’m not going to name it — that pays $11,000 more (annually) for insurance for a married employee than what I pay for my family,” Shirkey said. “And on top of that, the employee pays zero.”

Smajda was particularly critical of Snyder’s proposal to use school-aid funds to provide funding for colleges and universities instead of using general fund dollars, saying it is legal but wrong. School-aid dollars traditionally have gone only toward K-12 education.

“This is the largest proposed cut in history for K-12 education by either the Legislature or the governor,” he said.